With the permission of a client, I am writing this entry about her grandmother, Maggie Nova Brimm Kennedy of Smith Co TN. The question I have been trying to help her answer: Who were the parents of Maggie Nova Brimm?

Maggie Nova Brimm, “Novie” was born 17 Feb 1885 in Smith Co TN. Novie told her children that around age 6 she went to live with Arch and Lucy Brimm of Smith Co, TN. They raised her as their own and were very good to her.

In the 1880 census of Smith Co TN, Maggie was age 14, living with A.H. Brimm and his wife Lucy and their sons R.A. and J.W. Maggie’s relationship to head of household, A.H. Brimm, was given as “orphan”.

My client also told me that she and her family believed that Novie may have been Lucy Brimm’s niece and the child of Lucy’s brother, N.M. Nunley and his wife, Lucy Kindred. Lucy Kindred Nunley died 5 Aug 1886 and was buried in the Nunley-Boston family cemetery with her in-laws, near Riddleton, Smith Co TN. The family knew nothing more about N.M. Nunley.

In the 1880 census of TN, N.M. Nunley and wife Lucy were living with N.M.’s parents, A.W. and Lucy Nunley, district 3 of Smith Co TN.

With that to begin with, I decided to research the parents of both N.M and Lucy Kindred Nunley. I hoped to find that Maggie Nova had been provided for in either their wills or estates.

Through my research of the Smith Co TN records I learned that A.W. Nunley died in 1884 and his son, N.M. Nunley was the administrator of A.W. Nunley’s estate. The court of Smith Co TN provided a dower and homestead of about 80 acres for A.W. Nunley’s wife, Lucy Nunley, for her life.

In 1890, due to debts he owed, the interest and rights that N.M. Nunley had in his mother’s dower and homestead were sold. This would indicate that N.M. had no other money to pay his debts. This seemed to back up Novie’s story to her children of going to live with Arch and Lucy Brimm when she was about 6 years old. Thus, when Lucy Nunley died in 1913 her son N.M. Nunley had no share to receive.

Through the loose Chancery records of Smith Co TN I found an interesting suit involving the Kindred family and one of their daughters. This suit was chock full of family relationships, brothers naming sisters and brothers, sisters naming sisters and brothers, and mother naming daughters and sons. However, this suit was in 1880, after N.M. Nunley and Lucy Kindred had married, but before Maggie Nova was born. This suit also said that mother (of Lucy Kindred Nunley), Ann Kindred, died in 1880.

Lucy Kindred’s father was Roland/Rowland Kindred. I found only one deed for him and that was in 1887 when he bought a lot in Riddleton, Smith Co TN, from his son Eugene Kindred. Roland is present in the 1880 census of Smith Co, TN, the 21st district with a daughter, 2 sons and a granddaughter. I could not find him in the 1900 census of Smith Co TN, but I did find a reference to him in Smith Co TN county court minutes volume 9. In April 1902 R.J. Kindred of the 21st district was permanently released from working public road. With that said, I have found no will or other probate or a death record for Roland after 1902. His name is also not found in Smith Co TN cemetery records.

Though there are very few records left to research in Smith Co TN that might answer the question of Who were the parents of Maggie Nova Brimm Kennedy? I am still curious to know the answer. It seems the county court records of the time did not “apprentice” young Maggie Nova Nunley? to the Brimm family. Were Arch and Lucy Brimm her uncle and aunt? Close friends of the Nunley family? Does anyone else have a family story passed down that includes young Maggie Nova?